Oil settles slightly higher in choppy trade

AnoraMahmudova

WilliamL. Watts

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures settled marginally higher on Monday after three consecutive weekly declines.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in August
CLQ24, -50.79%
settled 8 cents, or 0.1%, higher at $100.91 a barrel. August Brent crude
UK:LCOQ4
on London’s ICE Futures exchange rose 12 cents, or 0.1%, to $107.35 a barrel.

Oil futures tumbled last week on confirmation violence in Iraq has had little impact on the country’s oil output, while the Libyan government resumed control of a pair of oil terminals that had been occupied by rebels for several months.

Over the weekend, however, the Brega oil port in Libya’s east was shut by protesters, an oil official said, while Iraq’s parliament failed to agree on a new speaker, prolonging a political impasse.

“Given that the three-week drop has taken the price of Brent oil below the levels it was trading before the situation in Iraq caused it to spike, there’s a possibility that the selling may have been overdone and that some gains could be on the way, perhaps as early as this week,” said Fawad Razaqzada, analyst at Forex.com, in a note.

In energy products markets, August natural gas
US:NGQ14
were unchanged at $4.15 per million British thermal units. August gasoline futures
US:RBQ4
rose 2 cents, or 0.7%, to $2.93 a gallon, while August heating oil
US:HOQ4
rose 1 cents, or 0.4%, to $2.87 a gallon.

Meanwhile, trading volume and open interest for Nymex Brent on Friday was the highest ever, CME said Monday.

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